Why are enterprise IT shunning flash?

Despite the importance of speed to line of business applications, businesses just aren’t that into flash storage. At least that’s the conclusion reached in a new report by NetApp.

3000 IT decision makers were polled across the EMEA region to discuss their use of flash. Unexpectedly almost a quarter said they didn’t use flash storage anywhere in their operations. Just 16% said that flash was used in their mission critical applications – payment processing, CRM and business intelligence (BI).

Although the majority of businesses questioned are already using flash, they still number less than half of the total market at just 48 percent. Even if you include the 18 percent of CTOs who are planning flash deployments, there is still a sizeable minority who have no plans for adopting the technology at any point in the future either.

Why not flash?

As the cost of flash storage continues to fall, why would businesses actively choose not to adopt flash? There are two possible reasons:

1. Skipping flash for the cloud

With many enterprises adopting a cloud-first strategy, it is perfectly feasible that these organizations are simply skipping on-site flash and moving straight to hosted data centers.

2. Lack of capex budget

Alternatively, the need for speed has not yet translated into increased capex budget to purchase upgraded storage.

Whatever the reason, these organizations could be missing out.

Post-warranty support, the ultimate stop gap measure

Whatever their growth plans may be, the reality is that those businesses choosing not to upgrade to flash now could be at a disadvantage. The answer is to free up cash that can be invested in flash storage – even if it is only a temporary stop on the way to the cloud.

Post warranty support services provide a way to extend the lifespan of your existing IT assets and significantly reduce your support and maintenance bill – by up to 70 percent in some cases. These savings can then be reinvested in flash storage, delivering performance benefits that have a direct impact on productivity and profitability.

In fact, third party post warranty maintenance could provide the impetus these “laggards” need to become market leaders in their respective industries.

To learn more about post warranty maintenance and building a workable roadmap for your storage future, please get in touch.